Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Company called Petzetakis

http://www.petzetakis.co.za/

They come in 6m lengths and cost about R340/m

So it's been a couple of months with varying amounts of success, my lack of plumbing knowledge came to the fore as I kept on having issues with drainage of the growbeds and pipes bursting. I then modified the drain pipes (installed 110mm instead of 50mm) as well as installing a new 800 litre sump tank. all went brilliantly from there, growth pics attached.

very neat......what are the fish like to eat

Unfortunately I have not had a chance to eat a fish; the system is around 6 months old and as of new years day all went to hell.

As I was saying all went well - until New Years Day... I had a great party the night before and at around 9 in the morning I got a phone call - all the fish are dead. During the festivities we had a massive storm, Lonehill - where this system is based is built on bedrock and a good amount of clay, the rain water from the storm literally pushed the 800 litre sump out of the ground and broke one of the pipes, which promptly drained all 4000 odd litres of water. 200 fish dead, 3 goldfish survived - don't ask me how and about 20 tilapia fry that were found swimming around in a puddle.

For the next three days I worked none stop to fit the tank properly, cementing posts into the ground to secure the tank and also fitting a sump pump under the sump tank so that if this happens again it will pump out the water before we have a problem. I have also gotten my timer fitted with a level switch that will shut done the pumps to the growbeds if the level drops below a certain point.

Synaptoman has been an absolute godsend - he advised me on how to feed the fry and is also assisting me in replacing the two hundred fish with fingerlings from his hatchery.

So no fish to eat because the poor guys got to dieing before I could get to eating...

very sad to hear it and I wish you better success in the future

Bummer Axle... you're not the first who's lost fish through their sump tank floating...

Posting such experiences helps us all.... can you detail your sump post/anchor arrangement... might be helpful for others...

Those plants are looking fantastic. Well done. This is just a minor setback and I'm sure that now you'll go from strength to strength. You have to kill a serious number of fish before you can call yourself an Aquaculturist.

No problem, I dug four holes in the ground around 40cm deep, poured in a concrete mix and then inserted bent rods with rings on the ends of them into the wet mixture. Once set we threaded 12mm reinforced steel bar through these rings. This picture was taken a day after new years with the air temperature at around 30 degrees, the water was still seeping up (and still is today) - this level of water took around half an hour to fill from empty.

The picture also shows the concrete sides (very rough at this stage) to prevent the walls from collapsing, when we get to winter and no more ground water I will pull the sump and tidy everything up. One can also see where I fitted the sump pump, below the level of the base of the tank.

Any comments from the builders out there? feel free

Thats a high water table

Really the only thing you can do is to make the sump heavier than the water it displaces.

Agreed, I have built a small pillar out of bricks and placed the return pump on top of them inside the sump tank thus keeping it around 2/3rds full, I will try and get a couple of pictures later and post them so you guys can see where I'm at.